In upset fashion, Calgary’s Premier Soccer League side turned back the Vancouver Whitecaps, a stalwart Major League Soccer squad, defeating the hosts 2-1 Wednesday night in front of 16,089 fans at BC Place.

It capped the two-game, total-goal series in favour of Cavalry, after it had drawn even in a scoreless tie with the Whitecaps in the first leg two weeks back at Spruce Meadows’ ATCO Field.

“I’m so excited,” Cavalry goal-scorer Dominick Zator told OneSoccer.ca post-game. “I just think it’s the chemistry we have. Everybody’s close friends. We’re just working hard for each other. It’s just what’s making us play well.”

Jordan Brown’s goal eight minutes into the match gave the visitors a significant advantage, since away-goals count as the first tiebreaker in case of a tied aggregate score. Given the two teams went scoreless during Leg 1 in Calgary, Brown’s strike — as he chased down a beautiful upfield feed from Nik Ledgerwood, while beating two Whitecaps defenders in the process and booting it past hapless goalkeeper Maxime Crepeau — meant the home side needed to tally at least two goals to come away with the series win.

That didn’t happen, even after the Whitecaps drew even in Wednesday’s affair when In-Beom Hwang scored in the 67th minute.

Just five minutes later, Zator restored the Cavs’ massive advantage when he found the back of the net with a header off a corner kick in tight on the Whitecaps goal.

From there, Cavalry kept it clean, turning back the Whitecaps desperate push for two goals.

“We were happy to control the attacking threats from there,” Cavalry head coach Tommy Wheeldon Jr. told reporters post-game. “We’re not expecting to win as a first-year CPL team.”

The series victory gives the Cavs a trip to the semifinal round of the Canadian Championship, the annual national soccer competition open to all premier professional teams in Canada, with the victor being awarded the Voyageurs Cup and the nation’s berth in the CONCACAF Champions League.

In the semis, they’ll play the MLS’ Montreal Impact, which earlier Wednesday, defeated York9 FC 1-0 to win their series on aggregate 3-2.

Leg 1 of the Cavalry-Impact series goes Aug. 7 at Stade Saputo in Montreal. The second leg is then scheduled a week later, Aug. 14 at ATCO Field.

The other third-round series saw the Ottawa Fury, a USL Championship squad, edge the CPL’s HFX Wanderers FC, 5-4 on aggregate after Wednesday’s 2-2 draw in the Nation’s Capital.

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